SolaraGuy.com

So i figured i'd start keeping a build log of my latest weekend tasks. I have basicly 4 weeks to finish this before the car show that i will be displaying it. Most of you may be familiar with my last build log that was posted in the tutorial section.

I've allready compleated most of my sound deadoning. I can't stress it enough just how much of a difference this makes. The car drives very quite on the inside. I'll probably add a bit more to the doors to cut down on things if i have some left over.

As for equipment, I'll lay it all out for you. For a head unit, i'm reusing my kenwood excelon DDX-7015 with an upgraded KNA-4100 and Sirius Sat Tuner. I've been debating on getting the DSP for it but i think i'm gonna skip it.

Output from this unit runs along 3 sets of Monstercable Shielded RCA's to the trunk where they run into a Rockford Fostgate 3Sixty.2 EQ. Now i know what your thinking, this is for people that want to keep your factory radio. And while yes it has that, it also has RCA inputs aswell as a 30-band per channel equalizer and crossover support with time alignment and 5.1 output. This makes it incredibly usefull when you combine it with the bluetooth programing from a phone.

From the power side, I'm running 0 guage all the way back to a stinger 20 farad capacitor. This cap was left over from my old system and i'm not sure it's any good as i haven't used it in over a year. The cap has a 0 -> 4 guage distro block on it that ouputs to the amps.

The amps are 2 kenwood excelons that I had in my old car. The 1200 watt KAC-X650D 5 channel amp, and the 1600 watt KAC-X850D Subwoofer Amp.

As far as speakers and woofers go. I will be running a single 10" Image Dynamics IDMAX10 V3. I picked this bad boy up as part of a liquidation of a supplier. It's heavy as hell and ways over 30 pounds. In the front doors, I am reusing my Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 setup and mounting the crossovers in the trunk. The rear deck will have CDT Audio's CL-69X 6x9. Again these were picked up as part of a liquidation sale.

So that's pretty much it as far as equipment goes. The trunk is going to be fiberglassed as i need access to my spair tire, room to store lugage, and possibly still use the pass through. I plan on putting the sub and the sub amp along the left hand side, and the speaker amp and all the other electronics along the right hand side.

I've been using the links from this website as a guide for making my setup as it did a similar year avalon and it seems to share a similar trunk.
http://www.caraudiomag.com/technical/ca ... index.html & http://www.caraudiomag.com/technical/ca ... index.html

I wanted to make this look nice, so instead of carpeting it, i'm going to cover it in Silver Texalium to match my paint. Since carbon fiber is expensive, this is a fiberglass weave that matches the sytle and coated in aluminum to give it a silver look. It acts just the same and it's 1/4 the price.

As far as where i'm at right now, I have glassed the trunk carpet on the sides and need to re-enforce it. I'll be taking pictures as i go to show my progress but I only have time to work on this on the weekends. Comments are welcome but please no flaming on my choices of equipment, most of this is being reused from my old car rather than buying new stuff.

So it's comming along a lot slower than i planned. I had to trim the edges of the side panels to get them to fit back in before i could apply a full harden to them. Right now they flex a little still. Since they dried in car, they retained most of their shape, so i can use that to trace out an MDF base. That will be the task for next weekend. I didn't get a chance to take any pics, but i will next weekend. I need to order some "kitty hair" to help make a stronger supports cause this sub weighs 30+ pounds.

If you get a chance to take and post pics, that would be GREAT to go with your project!


...I'll keep my eyes out for your progress... keep up the good work!



-crisp

Good work man, keep us updated i want to see the final product

Yeah i'm just not getting stuff done as fast as i want. With me usualy getting nothing done on friday, i end up only working on saturday, and when i don't reach my goal, i don't have enough time on sunday to do another layer and let it harden before i have to leave (i'm not doing this work at my apartment so instead my parents house). So it's jsut a slow process. I still haven't even tested the electronics to see if they are good or not. Anyways i ordered some more bodyfiller and stuff (kitty hair) to make stronger supports, so we'll see what happens when it gets here. I should have the rings and stuff cutout next weekend. I made front door speaker templates, but i haven't test fitted them, so i don't know if i need to cut them down or not yet.

Took a few picks today to show where i'm at. Tomorrow i'll glass the MDF to make the bottom support and then cover the whole thing in 'milkshake'.

That looks awesome so far. I can only Imagine how nice it is going to finish up! How much do you think the enclosure will end up weighing w/o the sub?

shouldn't weigh more than an MDF box the same size. I believe the Fiberglass/bodyfiller is overall less dense than MDF, so since it's roughly the same thickness it shouldn't be too heavy. I still have to cut my rings out and boxes to hold the amps. It's pouring rain right now so i can't do work outside and it's suposed to rain tomorrow too so maybe that will be a good time to do it.

over 30 lbs? lol i thought my type r's were heavy. Sounds like a nice set up. I hear CDT speakers are worth their price nice work

1gSE wrote:over 30 lbs? lol i thought my type r's were heavy. Sounds like a nice set up. I hear CDT speakers are worth their price nice work

yeah that's what my friend said when he refered me to http://www.woofersetc.com/ where they are having a CDT liquidation sale. Got the ones for the rear for $90.

more pics:



Templates are needed to be cut out for the rears cause they don't line up with factory.

more pics. They sound great!

Great progress! Nice photo accompaniment, too!






-crisp

Thanks crisp.

Today i got a chance to get a little farther. I re-enforced the connection edge with "kitty hair" and then covered the whole thing in a thing film of milkshake to give it some more structural support. I don't want this thing flexing when i streatch the fleece. Unfortunatly it just started raining, but i think it's time for me to cut out rings and amp mounts.

That enclosure is really coming together nicely!